Attention all Knifemakers!.....Product dealers/retailers and/or knife makers/sharpeners/hobbyists (etc) are not permitted to insert business related text/videos/images (company/company name/product references) and/or links into your signature line, your homepage url (within the homepage profile box), within any posts, within your avatar, nor anywhere else on this site. Market research (such as asking questions regarding or referring to products/services that you make/offer for sale or posting pictures of finished projects) is prohibited. These features are reserved for supporting vendors and hobbyists.....Also, there is no need to announce to the community that you are a knifemaker unless you're trying to sell something so please refrain from sharing.
Thanks for your co-operation!

If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

I seem to get alot of Shuns they have a good distribution network out here.Just sharpened a girls 10" Shun Premier,very dull.Start wt. 600 Atoma careful not to scratch the Damascus wt. my back bevel.remove burr,polish out backbevel wt.1200 bester,deburr,polish out backbevel again wt.5K Rika.(polishing the backbevel each step creates less drag cutting food)Raise the spine & cut in final bevel on the Rika,you can hear the bevel being cut in on the polishing stone.deburr.Because no damage to repair my guess is about 10 minutes tho I never time myself,could be longer.

Dull stainless knives I like to start wt. Atoma 140,it's also good for repair.I got the 140 first,liked it so much bought the 600,since then my low grit stones collecting dust.1000 up I like the stones.

That's a cool method, Keith. Are you saying you put a microbevel on with the 5k or is it more substantial than that?

Andrew you can do both bevels on your medium stone,I like to do final bevel on polishing.I think of a micro-bevel haveing more edge angle at the top of the shinoge line(it's only language)this is more of a blended bevel,you can only get wt. free hand sharpening.It works because the whole area is polished,the blend makes a convex edge that glides through food.

It is a matter of experiment & observation how high you raise the spine for yor final bevel,depends what I'm cutting,for fruits & vegetables I only raise it a little(thin carbon gyuto's).For say splitting Lobsters wt. a small cleaver,raise the spine higher.For bone cleavers even higher,it's still a convex edge that wt. a slight foward chop cut glides through chix. bones.You are not hammering the cleaver straight down,this can splinter the bone.

It's the same principle wt. a Samurai sword,thicker convex edge can glide through green bamboo in one sweep.Try that with most swords,Axes etc,they will hardly dent the bamboo.It's a combination of tech(slicing action)great steel,& a convex edge.

Lately I have been experimenting wt Jon's tech of blending bevel on just right side wt. my Konosuki wt. steel,it seems to work well.

I used to spend a lot more time sharpening. Probably in the 10-15 min range. I still do it slow when I'm testing things but for a typical gyuto sharpening these days, assuming the stones are prepped goes something like:
400/500 1:00 (or until edge is reestablished)
1k <1:00 (just a little refinement and weakening of the burr)
4-6k 1:00 (or until the edge is more or less clean)
strop 0:30
I deburr once after the 4-6k stone, if necessary. It typically takes a couple of seconds.

Andrew you can do both bevels on your medium stone,I like to do final bevel on polishing.I think of a micro-bevel haveing more edge angle at the top of the shinoge line(it's only language)this is more of a blended bevel,you can only get wt. free hand sharpening.It works because the whole area is polished,the blend makes a convex edge that glides through food.

It is a matter of experiment & observation how high you raise the spine for yor final bevel,depends what I'm cutting,for fruits & vegetables I only raise it a little(thin carbon gyuto's).For say splitting Lobsters wt. a small cleaver,raise the spine higher.For bone cleavers even higher,it's still a convex edge that wt. a slight foward chop cut glides through chix. bones.You are not hammering the cleaver straight down,this can splinter the bone.

It's the same principle wt. a Samurai sword,thicker convex edge can glide through green bamboo in one sweep.Try that with most swords,Axes etc,they will hardly dent the bamboo.It's a combination of tech(slicing action)great steel,& a convex edge.

Lately I have been experimenting wt Jon's tech of blending bevel on just right side wt. my Konosuki wt. steel,it seems to work well.

depends on the knife, but i timed myself also one day and averaged about 5 minutes for normal sharpening (from basically no edge)... however, i would say the majority of my sharpening now days are major repairs. Those can take between 10 minutes and a couple of hours.

Seeing Jon on the twitterstream, yes, the man's a machine. Likewise, I've seen the same with real pros in Japan, including in a workshop (Tadatsuna). Me, I try and be quick too and I don't get really better results for routine stuff if I take longer, though sometimes that's what you're in the mood for too.